Hello fodor community,

My name is Kelly, and i will be traveling to europe for the first time with one other person. I will be doing an 85 day trip but the first 15 days of the trip have me extremely confused.

Beginning at the end of may, i will be in 5 countries for 3 days each; Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain (where i will ultimately finish out the remaining 70 days of my trip).

I am looking into eurail passes but am open to other forms of transportation between country to country. What has me the most confused is how the eurail pass actually works. when looking into different passes (4 country passes to be exact) i have the option of choosing 4- 8 days in 1 month or 10-15 days in 2 months. what exactly does this mean? what does a eurail pass entail?

in the 15 days am i able to cross the 4 countries as well as use the pass to travel within the country?

also if i choose the 4 days in 1 month option, is it 4 consecutive days or am i able to use 1 of the 4 days per travel day example use the first day to travel from amsterdam to berlin, 3 days later use the 2nd day to travel berlin to paris etc.

i have read many forums on how the trains work but i am simply unable to understand it! i am also open to any suggestions with regards to traveling between countries and within the countries

thank you in advance for your time and help, i very much appreciate it!

This is not a great plan. You will be basically limited to 5 cities, two full days each and a significant travel day between each one. Amsterdam to Berlin a flight takes a little over an hour [total relocation maybe five and a half], the train six and a half, plus an hour at either end that's spent when changing hotels. Berlin into Italy you definitely have to fly, and probably from then on.

Train schedules here, flights on skyscanner.com.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

Exchange Berlin with any city or country for lots of info:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Berlin

With 15 days and 5 countries, you will not have 3 days in each country. You use up at least 1/2 to 1 whole day getting from country to country, or from one city in a country to a city in another country.

That leaves you with 2 days in each country. Depending on which city or area you plan to be in, you may want to take a cheap flight rather than a train, so a rail pass of any kind may not be your best option.

I should add that IMO a two night stay might be OK for a small town, but yielding only a full day after spending most of a day getting there, per your plan, is ill-advised for a major city where there is a lot to see and do.

If you want to tick places do something like Ams Berlin Paris Bruxelles Rome.
I have added one country !
Check planes via kayak.com then book direct with airline.

The day thing for the pass just refers to travel days. I think this is how it goes-

Say: 15 days in two months:

It means you're there for two month span but you only get 15 travel days which is a lot, actually.

Let's say 7 days Paris- train to Munich- 7 days Munich- train to Innsbruck- 7 days Innsbruck- train to Venice. 7 days Venice. (I'm not suggesting these time frames, I'm just using them for explanation). So. That's 28 days- roughly 1 month- but only 3 travel days. You'd have to do 12 travel days the next month before running out. And you can use them on local trains for day trips, but you might not want to, because it could be cheaper to opt for the pass with fewer travel days and just pay out of pocket for local trains. Those are not very expensive, in fact generally less than if paid for greyhound in the us.

Look up man in seat 61-really useful train website. I agree with everyone else- I seriously think you need 4 nights minimum in every place, and I would want 6, probably, in the major cities. 3 nights in each country is pretty much nothing.

As an example...I had 10 days in Germany and so far 6 in Italy, and that has not been nearly enough! You need to look at guidebooks and consider what you want out of the trip- there's an unbelievable amount of stuff to see and do even in the smaller places!!

You're looking at Eurail Flexipasses - Saverpass if two traveling together on one pass.

15 d flexipass / 2mo period

you can use any 15 days midnight to midnight in any of the countries on your pass -say a Eurail Select SaverPass or you can use 10 days in a row if you want.

If taking overnight trains and you start after 7pm - you travel on one pass day 7pm to the following midnight.

>in the 15 days am i able to cross the 4 countries as well as use the pass to travel within the country??

Yes the pass is valid in the block of four countries you chose-international trains or local trains

There are consecutive day passes too but yours are flexipasses - use the days whenever you want - your pass would have X number of boxes on it you are supposed to fill that day's date in on for it to be valid -be sure you do or risk being fined.

If over 25 Eurails are first class and that is a nice perk IME of using dozens of passes -so when compared to 2nd class discounted fares keep that in mind and to get those limited in number fares you must often book months in advance -a railpass lets you select which trains to take once there- Except in Italy, Spain and France you in your countries can hop any train anytime with few exceptions:
In Italy, Spain and France you have to have a seat reservation, for a small fee (3-10 euros usually) before boarding but these are usually easy to get (except on a few TGV lines in France - those book when you buy your pass- TGVs to south of France from Paris.

Anyways for loads of great info on trains check www.budgeteuropetravel.com (I've bought tons of passes from Byron there -IME he will answer any such questions even if not buying); www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.